This Page is
City of Hawthorne Documents - Set # 5Rosecrans
/ Hindry Accident History Details
New 11-14-04, updated 7-22-13
Hawthorne's Rosecrans / Hindry
intersection with its camera
enforcement on left and right turns, is an
example of an intersection where there is
scant safety justification for the use of
the cameras. Here you can look
at the official accident history for the
intersection, starting in 1994, and decide
for yourself.
See also Defect # 9 on the Home page.

This June 30, 2004 Daily Breeze article
was the first hint the general public got
that Hawthorne's cameras would endanger
their pocketbooks.

The article said that the cameras at
Rosecrans / Hindry and one other
intersection would generate a combined
total of 1600 tickets in the month of
June.
On Nov. 10 the City provided statistics indicating
that the Rosecrans / Hindry cameras alone were
issuing about 1000 tickets per month. That
figure was the highest I had seen at any intersection
in California.
It raised the question: Was there a
safety problem at the intersection
sufficient to justify this unprecedented
level of enforcement?

2004: Review of the Accident
Record for 1994 - 2004

To find out about the safety record at the
intersection, on
Aug. 26 I faxed the City a written records request, as
follows. "E.All materials of any
kind, created or dated Jan. 1, 2002 to the
present, reflecting or discussing the rate of
traffic accidents or traffic congestion at any red
light camera enforced intersection, the causes of
traffic accidents, traffic congestion, or other
traffic-related problems there, and/or corrective
measures taken or needed to be taken there,
including enforcement of traffic laws (including
photo enforcement)." On Sept. 23 the
City Clerk replied:"A
diagram responsive to Request No. E...
[is] available for your review...."
She offered no other documents. I
obtained a copy of the "diagram," which
turned out to be a large (24"x 30") hand-annotated
map
of the city bearing the notation:
"Sgt. Kauffman 4/10/03."
It
contained, for each of 25 intersections in
town, the number of traffic collisions as
registered by the police's regional
communications center ("RCC"), the number
of CVC 21453 cites, and separately, the
number of collisions as recorded by
"SWITRS." The "key" on the map said
"6 month stats."

(SWITRS - Statewide Integrated Traffic Records
System - reports, are provided to cities and individual
citizens, at no cost, by the Information Services Unit
of the CHP. If you want a report for an
intersection in your neighborhood, go to their website
at http://iswitrs.chp.ca.gov.
Please note, however, that SWITRS will automatically
send the City a copy of whatever they have provided to
you.)

Here is
highwayrobbery.net's table of the figures found on the
City's map. Bold type represents an intersection
with a red light camera.

Accidents
per RCC

Accidents
per
SWITRS

CVC
21453
Cites

East-
West
Volume
(Thous.)

North-
South
Volume
(Thous.)

Rosecrans/Aviation

8

1

0

58

33

Rosecrans/Isis

10

4

2

58

unk

Rosecrans/Hindry

7

3

1

58

unk

Rosecrans/Inglewood

16

8

2

34

21

Rosecrans/Hawthorne

13

10

2

32

43

Rosecrans/Prairie

23

5

0

24

36*

Rosecrans/Crenshaw

7

2

0

41

42

138th/Hawthorne

1

1

0

unk

41*

135th/Inglewood

2

2

0

unk

21*

135th/Hawthorne

3

0

0

unk

39

135th/Prairie

7

2

0

4

32

132nd/Hawthorne

2

1

0

unk

39*

El
Segundo/Inglewood

15

6

3

39

21*

El Segundo/Hawthorne

6

2

0

32

39

El
Segundo/Prairie

22

3

0

42

30

El
Segundo/Yukon

1

6

1

40*

unk

El
Segundo/Crenshaw

22

3

0

39

38

120th/Inglewood

8

5

2

11

22

120th/Hawthorne

4

7

5

11

35

120th/Prairie

13

8

3

unk

27

120th/Crenshaw

14

1

0

unk

42

118th/Inglewood

3

2

0

unk

22

Imperial/Inglewood

17

6

1

24

22

Imperial/Hawthorne

17

12

4

24

38

Imperial/Freeman

5

3

0

31

unk

Table assembled by highwayrobbery.net from figures on
4/10/03 City map.
*Traffic volume obtained by averaging two nearby
volumes.
The first-listed street is east-west.

The Rosecrans / Hindry
intersection does not "stand-out" based upon the
accident statistics given above. In fact, if its
accident figures were adjusted for the very high
traffic volume the intersection sees, the accident
rate would probably be among the lowest in the City.

The City's map did not indicate the causes of the
accidents it listed.
To examine the causes, I obtained the SWITRS ten-year
(1994 - 2004) accident printout for Rosecrans /
Hindry. The nine-page SWITRS report (all nine
pages are posted on this website) showed a total of
fifty-one accidents of all kinds, about one every two
months.Of those fifty-one accidents, only four (about one
every two years) were caused by motorists making a
westbound left turn or a northbound right turn, the
movements now monitored by cameras, and none of the
four clearly ran, or rolled, the red light.
Three of the four probably occurred under a green
light, and one probably occurred after the driver
stopped for the red, then started moving again.
Only one of the four was recent, in 2002. Two of
them were in 1996, and one was in 1998.
Three were "PDO" - property damage only - and one
resulted in injuries. (SWITRS abbreviations are explained at the bottom
of this webpage.)

Accident # 1

Accident # 1 of the four is the top report on the
SWITRS page below, and occurred in 1996. Based
upon the violation noted, CVC 21453(b), as well as the
Primary Collision Factor of "r-o-w auto," the
reporting officer believed that the at-fault driver
stopped at the light for the northbound right turn but
then proceeded to make the right turn without having
clear right-of-way. The accident involved
another northbound driver who made an illegal lane
change or improper turn (CVC 22107), and an eastbound
driver. The accident was a sideswipe with no
injuries.

Accident # 2

Accident # 2 of the four is the second report on the
SWITRS page below, and occurred in 1996. The
at-fault driver was turning left from westbound
Rosecrans and hit a driver who was turning left from
eastbound Rosecrans. Based upon the
violation noted, CVC 21451(b), the reporting officer
did not believe that the at-fault driver ran a red
light. The accident was a broadside with no
injuries.

(Accidents # 3 & 4 are discussed below this
SWITRS page.)

Accident # 3

Accident # 3 of the four is the last report on the
SWITRS page below, and occurred in 1998. The at-fault driver was turning left from
westbound Rosecrans and hit a driver who was
proceeding straight on eastbound
Rosecrans. Based upon the violation
noted, CVC 21801(a), as well as
the Primary Collision Factor "r-o-w auto," the
reporting officer did not believe that the
at-fault driver ran a red light. The accident was a broadside with two
injuries.

(Accident # 4 is discussed below this
SWITRS page.)

Accident # 4

Accident # 4 of the
four is the second report on the SWITRS page below,
and occurred in 2002. The at-fault driver was
making a northbound right turn and hit a driver who
also was northbound but not turning. Based upon
the violation noted, CVC 22107 (improper turn or lane
change), as well as the Primary Collision Factor
"improper turn," the reporting officer did not believe
that the at-fault driver ran a red light. The accident was a sideswipe with no
injuries.